Teleportation v. Jump Theory

[The Pakkrat]

Here's a Psionics vs. Jump Theory question: In Your Traveller Universe, is teleportation affected by gravity wells, body diameters and the like? The chance of such a consideration is nigh nil but it still needs to be asked.

For example: A Psion wants to teleport from one familiar starship to another familiar starship while within 100D of the planet they are in orbit over, or within the gravity well of a large planetoid with dense elements. Will the planet or the dense planetoid have any effect on the jaunt?

I ask because I want to know if gravity wells and the like should have effect, trajectory adjustment, or something of the like on otherwise straight line jaunts.

Thoughts? Is teleportation just a psionic Jump, Hop or Skip to a lesser degree?

Something to gnaw on from Net-7 News. Live from Roethoeegaeaegz, this is the Pakkrat

 

[flykiller]

I want to know if gravity wells and the like should have effect

to my knowledge there is no literature to that effect. "teleport" is just "teleport".

installing such a rule would lead to all sorts of retro-fitting, and most players whose characters have that ability likely would be more annoyed than accepting. the new limitation probably should be accompanied by some increase in capability as an offset.

as for equating teleport with jump, hey, it's all fantasy and you're the ref, go for it.

 

[McPerth]

In fact, the situation may well be just opposite to what you say.

I not sure of the exact reference, but ITTR it was in CT: Secret of the Anciens teleport explanation that is said the planet acts (to a point) as sink for the energy changes teleport requires. If so, it might well be that teleporting in space could present more problems that in a planet surface (aside from the obvious vector problem that teleporting form one ship to another presents by itself).

See that if gravity interferes with teleporting as it does with jump, all previous teleporting is wrong, as it could not be used on planet surface (e.g. the Zhodani CG Comandos could not use it to insert themselves in planetary surfaces, losing al ltheir meaning).

 

[Enoki]

IMTU jump works as a variant of gravity control. That's why you have to be clear of gravity wells when you jump. Those distort the jump well you are forming by either bending, stretching, or otherwise misshaping it.

I'd say teleport is more a folding of space-time. Or, it might be a means to move close(r) to C somehow. That makes it totally different from jumping. Both would allow movement between two points. The second would preclude moving through solid objects. The first would be limited to how big a fold you could make in space time. This is closer to the usual ways teleport is presented.

 

[aramis]

Here's a Psionics vs. Jump Theory question: In Your Traveller Universe, is teleportation affected by gravity wells, body diameters and the like? The chance of such a consideration is nigh nil but it still needs to be asked.

Teleportation IS affected by gravity wells, and quite severely...
... but not at all like the way jump is.

Change altitude, and you change the temperature of the teleporting individual. Teleport from orbit can be fatal.

 

[whartung]

Also, you retain your original vector. Just consider teleportation as jumping from one moving object to another. Teleporting from an aircraft going 100mph to a house below, puts a large hole in the wall as your 100mph body that suddenly appears in the middle of the living is stopped by walls, furniture, etc.

 

[Condottiere]

I vaguely recall that the Law of Momentum Conservation, supposedly causes some sort of energy build up, expressed as heat, during the teleportation.

Gravity might be a heat sink.

 

[jcrocker]

I know in MT they had a number of different modifiers for teleporting - so many degrees internal temperature change per large elevation difference, if you teleported large distances away from the equator you'd keep the momentum so you'd go whipping off to the side, lots of good Newtonian stuff.

Nothing that would come into play crossing a room or moving up or down a floor in a building, so it wouldn't stamp out fun during an adventure.

 

[flykiller]

well he's asking "if gravity wells and the like should have effect, trajectory adjustment, or something of the like on otherwise straight line jaunts" similar to the effect it would have on jump.

if it did the players probably would find it more annoying than game-enhancing. teleport is (seems to be) conceived as "point a quantum shift point b", not "vector path ab".

 

[tjoneslo]

From CT Book 3: Page 44 & 45

This restriction results from the law of conservation of momentum: on a rotating planet, two locations will have different rotational speeds and directions. A jump from a point on the earth's equator to i t s antipode would result in a total velocity difference between the character and his surroundings of over 3300 kph.

Changes in altitude (actually all movement to locations of differing gravitational potential) will result in potential energy changes, manifesting themselves as changes in body temperature. A jump of 1 km straight down will result in a temperature increase of 2.5 degrees Celsius; this is sufficient to cause extreme fever, brain damage, and even death. A jump up will cool the body by the same amount, with equally serious results. To be safe, a jump may not involve an elevation change of more than 400 meters, and multiple jumps should not involve a cumulative elevation change or more than 600 meters in one hour. These problems may be gotten around through the use of technological devices: energy compensators, heat suits, and other means. Characters may feel ariven to invent such materials, commission their invention, or seek them out from those who already have them.

 

[kilemall]

Another OTU difference to consider- jump takes one week in jumpspace, teleportation is instant. That alone marks them as two radically different processes.

 

[tjoneslo]

I spend some time trying to dig up the quotes on the "sparklers", one of the races from the core invented by DGP. They used a Psionic Teleport stardrive. This produced a sparkling effect as the ship "jumped", hence their name. But I remember no further details.

So it is possible (in theory) with a highly trained Psi (or crew of them) plus a metric boatload of machines to use psionic teleport at interstellar distances.

My experience with Psionic rules include GURPS: Psionics. This is a very complete set of psionics rules covering everything from the subtle ghost powers to world altering power levels driving by gestalts and huge machines.

 

[mike wightman]

One of the early JTAS had an article about special psionic talents - one of these is interstellar teleportation.

 

[aramis]

I spend some time trying to dig up the quotes on the "sparklers", one of the races from the core invented by DGP. They used a Psionic Teleport stardrive. This produced a sparkling effect as the ship "jumped", hence their name. But I remember no further details.

So it is possible (in theory) with a highly trained Psi (or crew of them) plus a metric boatload of machines to use psionic teleport at interstellar distances.

My experience with Psionic rules include GURPS: Psionics. This is a very complete set of psionics rules covering everything from the subtle ghost powers to world altering power levels driving by gestalts and huge machines.

Be aware: GURPS Psionics is also much higher a maximum power level than CT, MT, T4, or T20. Traveller caps psionics pretty tight, yet power conversions is poorly handled by GURPS Psionics, as the costs are much more linear than Traveller's PSR. (Proper ZTM's are in the 400-500 point range, for example.)

 

[flykiller]

In Your Traveller Universe, is teleportation affected by gravity wells, body diameters and the like?

get what you needed?

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Hard science, bah!

Seriously, you actually do math about temp and vectors with your teleportations, a magic power, a super power?

Boo-hiss!

T-port is a super power and thus like all super powers works or doesn't. I don't do all that boring crap like worry about temp changes or maintaining vectors so in my ATU you just need to make the Task Number. Make it and you can do that moving airplane to house with no problems (which includes no temp changes or crashing through walls). Now, if you mess up it's more do you merge and explode more than keep moving.

So orbit to orbit is fine. And no gravity has no effect on teleport, but then nothing does except range, rating, and skill.

T-port is related to Jump but uses a different space. Similar principles, which is how Jump was invented in my world, by studying the Astro/Teleporters.

Yeah, my TU is soft and squishy. :devil:

 

[The Pakkrat]

A nice and varied take on Teleportation. Thanks, all.